Has anyone seen a problem with an ST series bike, where the bike fires once or twice on the start switch but then dies immediately?
I recently completed an 8-day 2100 mile tour of the Austrian Alps taking in Vienna and Prague and on two occasions the bike refused to start.
Both times (once in stationery traffic in the fast lane of Antwerp ring road!) the engine was VERY hot 110 degrees and refused to restart. Second time it was cooler (102) and safer (a petrol station), but both times the engine was stopped without the Key. Firstly by stalling it and secondly by the kill switch.
Much trouble-shooting of fuel, fuses, voltages etc showed nothing wrong. Both times it came to life again after an hour.
I am wondering if there is a safety cut-out in the engine management system software that disables the bike's re-starting for an hour - or maybe the imobiliser??
Anyone else seen this and/or know of the cause?
The tour was fantastic. I went with a friend on the latest BMW 1200RT. Happy to advise other travellers....
Mood: Abbia Divertimento---o0o---Cassaforte Di Soggiomo
Terry - I have an ST4s (2001) and have not experienced those problems and I have had the engine hot at 110+ in Spain. I'd be very interested to hear if the problem reoccurs or better still to hear of the "cause" of your problem.
What units is that temp in? My ST2 runs regularly at 150-160 but on a hot day will reach 180-190.. again, I have no idea what units this is. Even so, I haven't experienced the problem but your theory sounds logical..
The ST2 is air cooled and I think yours is water cooled.. not sure if that makes any difference...??
Dunks...your ST2 is water cooled. If you look behind the front wheel, you will see a big radiator and if you take the 'dashboard' panels off, that fill in between the clocks and the fairing, you'll see the coolant header tank...don't forget to check it's level now and then, and don't forget the anti-freeze in winter. Your temp guage is in degrees Farenheit so 212 is boiling point if I remember my temperatures in old money.
Terry, one of the things that you might want to check is the condition of all the connectors for the relays and the connectors for some of the sensors. They all live under the fairing with all the road spray etc and they can get corroded. This is especially because the fairing on an ST can be a bit of a chore to take off and they tend to get neglected. It could be heat related in that expansion of the contacts causes them to be a bit intermittent, or it could just be a co-incidence that they're making dodgy contact and the heat has nothing to do with it.
Stuff that can do this is the side stand relay (up by the left hand side of the headlight), the fuel pump relay under the seat, could be the starter motor relay or starter motor connections, could be a dodgy crankshaft sensor connection, could be a dodgy kill switch or ignition switch etc etc...
Few more symptoms might help. Is it completely dead? Can you hear the fuel pump prime? Does the starter motor turn the engine over? Do you have an alarm? Could the immobiliser be set?
Thanks for the ideas Jools, sorry I've taken a while to get back but I've been away for a few days.
I'll certainly checkout those points.
The symptoms were quite reproducable in that when the ignition was switched on the pump would prime, the starter would turn the engine over (i've had a previous problem after jet-washing the bike, where I got water on the starter solenoid and it would not even turn over), fuel could be seen being injected (with the air filter off) the engine would fire once or twice only and then die immediately. If I turned off the ignition and re-tried, the exact same sequence would happen. I had to stop trying as the battery would soon start to run-down. After an hour of doing nothing to it, it fired and kept running as if nothing had happened! The standard immobiliser is fully automatic and as far as I know only cuts in after 15 secs of ignition being tuned on. I checked out the kill switch, but could not see any moisture near the unit.
I wasn't too bothered cos I just had a cup of tea and a rest, but the most annoying thing was the mate on the RT1200 being oh-so-superior and mocking. Just cos his bike won't corner! Interestingly my bike actually worked out slightly more economical than his bus over 2100 miles with 50+ mpg despite some spirited used of the throttle over mountain passes and fairly short periods of 130mph cruising on the autobahns (I have learned that this activity EATS rear tyres so have learned to ration it!)
I'll check out the relay contacts and report back any findings - thanks.......
13-Jun-2005, 15:22 
Jools
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